Post Type: Education, Research & Enterprise | Faculty/PSG: Engineering & the Environment | Division/Prof Service: ISVR | Section: Fluid Dynamics & Acoustics Research Group | Location: Highfield Campus | Post Type: Full Time | Closing Date: 01 Apr 2014 |
Applications are invited for three Research Fellow/Senior Research Fellow posts to join the new five-year EPSRC funded research programme grant “S3A: Future Spatial Audio for an Immersive Listener Experience at Home”. Please see details of the other vacancies on www.job.soton.ac.uk this vacancy is for one postholder for the role of Research Fellow / Senior Research Fellow in Acoustics and Audio Signal Processing for Spatial Audio. The project is carried out in collaboration between the universities of Southampton, Surrey, Salford, and the BBC. All posts are for a fixed term of 2 years, with the possibility for further extension.
The project
S3A aims to unlock the creative potential of 3D sound and deliver to listeners a step change in immersive experiences. This requires a radical new listener centred approach to audio enabling 3D sound production to dynamically adapt to the listeners' environment. Achieving immersive audio experiences in uncontrolled living spaces presents a significant research challenge. This requires major advances in our understanding of the perception of spatial audio together with new representations of audio and the signal processing that allows content creation and perceptually accurate reproduction.
S3A will pioneer a novel object-based methodology for audio signal processing that allows flexible production and reproduction in real spaces. The reproduction will be adaptive to loudspeaker configuration, room acoustics and listener locations. The fields of audio and visual 3D scene understanding will be brought together to identify and model audio-visual objects in complex real scenes. Audio-visual objects are sound sources or events with known spatial properties of shape and location over time, e.g. a football being kicked, a musical instrument being played or the crowd chanting at a football match. Object based representation will transform audio production from existing channel based signal mixing (stereo, 5.1, 22.2) to spatial control of isolated sound sources and events. This will realise the creative potential of 3D sound enabling intelligent user-centred content production, transmission and reproduction of 3D audio content in platform independent formats.
The goal of S3A is to deliver a step-change in the quality of spatial audio consumed by the general public at home or on the move. S3A will pursue novel audio-visual signal processing to achieve immersive spatial audio outside the research laboratory in everyone's home.
Professional profile
This post-holder will take responsibility for the development of novel audio signal processing systems aimed at the generation of 3D sound for single moving listeners, multiple static listeners, and ultimately for multiple moving listeners. The work will involve an appraisal of existing methods for 3D sound generation including full field and binaural approaches to reproduction using multiple loudspeakers. It is also expected that the post-holder will contribute to work on headphone based reproduction systems. The successful candidate will be expected to work closely with image processing specialists who will work on listener position tracking techniques. A PhD in the field of physical acoustics and/or audio signal processing is a pre-requisite, and experience with practical audio DSP is highly desirable.
Additional information
All applicants will be expected to collaborate closely with BBC Research and academic partners as part of a project team to realise the overall objectives of the research programme.
Applicants for the senior research fellow posts should be able to demonstrate a strong track-record of publication in primary journals and independent research potential. Senior research fellows will contribute to leading the cross programme research challenges to deliver on milestones which link the four research streams in 'object-based production', 'listener perception', 'audio object separation' and 'reproduction of spatial audio in real spaces'.
Posts will initially be for 2 years with possibility of extension up to 5 years, with a start date as soon as possible (to be negotiated).
The salary will be commensurate with the qualification and experience. The current salaries are in the range £28,132 to £34,565 pa on Level 4 and £35,597 to £45,053 pa on level 5 of the of the Education, Research and Enterprise scale.
Applications must include a cover letter, Curriculum Vitae (two pages) and a list of publications (indicate the three most relevant publications). The cover letter should give a clear indication of the position applied for and should detail the ways in which the applicant expects to use their skills in fulfilling the objectives of the project described above.
Application Procedure:
You should submit your completed online application form at www.jobs.soton.ac.uk If you require any assistance, please call Emily Enright (Recruitment Team) on +44 (0)23 8059 2507. Please quote reference 359014KR on all correspondence.